Mesciua

Mesciua is a traditional cucina povera soup originating from the Ligurian province of La Spezia. It's made with a combination of chickpeas, pearl barley, cannellini beans, buckwheat, olive oil, bay leaves, sage, and stock. The ingredients are cooked in a pot until they soften up, and the soup is then served with Ligurian olive oil and lots of black pepper.

In local dialect, mesciua means mixed or a mixture, referring to the different ingredients used in the soup. It is believed that the soup was invented when there was a scarcity of grains and beans to prepare fagiolata, so port workers and their wives collected spillages from torn food sacks that were being loaded off the ships.